Areas of Interest

"Some battles are seen as landmark moments; their result could be the catalyst for monumental change for centuries to come. The Battle of Talas in 751 is considered as one of those moments. Let's explore why.

What happened?

In the years leading up to 751, both the Chinese Tang Dynasty and the Arab Umayyad Caliphate had both been expanding aggressively into Central Asia – rendering a collision inevitable. The region had already featured prominently in Islamic history because the Abbasid Revolution in the late 740's, which replaced the Umayyads with the Abbasids, was centred around the province of Khorasan (modern-day western Afghanistan, north-eastern Iran and Uzbekistan)…."Main pagelink